HAM Radio Antenna Options?

"No mods" usually means "no holes". It would be a rare company that doesn't allow mirror mounts.

 

I too second this request. Maybe in another thread if needed, but I would like to see different ideas as well.

 

If you are just going to operate on the 10 meter band (28.0 to 29.7), a cb antenna will work. Just use something like a Wilson 1000 or 5000 with the adjustable whip. The higher you go in frequency, the shorter the antenna needs to be. So you just keep trimming the whip down until the swr ratio comes down.

 

I know this would be a bit expensive.... But is it possible to run one of those "littletarheel" antennas for the cb if I was going to already be running a ham rig in the truck? It looks like it would be possible as it says it covers 7.0 to 54 MHz. This setup would cut down on the antenna farm look and the only other antenna that would be needed would be for the 2m/440. So that would be 2 antennas total and pretty much all bands would be covered right?

 

Sure; you can use a screwdriver (which includes the Tarheel family) with a CB. You will, however, have to tune the antenna for the CB band, just the same as you would for the Ham bands.

I've run my CB through my ATAS-100 when my dedicated CB antennas weren't working properly. Tuned for 10m, moved the receiver to 27.185 and manually retuned the antenna for maximum noise on the ham rig. Moved the coax and had a 1.4:1 SWR.

I've been known listen to the CB channels with my Yaesu, since the receiver in it is SO much better than the one in my CB.

 

This is exactly what I will be doing then. Seems like an antenna tuner would be a necessity or at least extremely helpful for both of these applications. I have a pretty extended wishlist, just not sure how to put it all together as a mobile unit yet. lol I guess that's part of the fun.

 

I'm not running any yet. Actually I just got my technician license a month ago and will be taking the general exam in the next couple of weeks. I'm extremely new to amateur radio, but have really been having fun trying to put all the pieces together as I go. I don't have anyone helping (Elmer style), but a few books and the internet have been really helpful. I run sound at the church I attend, so it's not all Completely foreign, but it does have a different twist to it.
The Multi-band rig I'm looking at is IC-7100 due to the frequency coverage that the radio has. But I'm open to suggestions. I would prefer to have it all in one radio without sacrificing quality to much due to space limitations of a truck. I know there are mods that I ran across for the IC-7000 you mentioned that would open up the 11m band. Haven't seen any mods for the 7100 yet, but I'm sure they will emerge at some point